UNC Baseball On Familiar Turf,
Now The Favorite For NCAA Title;
Will Diamond Heels Finally Win It?
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated June 22, 2026)
There are more than 50 reasons some call the University of North Carolina the “University of National Champions.”
Despite its awesome track record of sustained, long-term success — 12 previous College World Series trips, two national runner-up finishes, 20 ACC championships (regular-season or tournament), more than 80 players who have gone on to play Major League Baseball, etc. — the UNC baseball program is not yet among them.
The Diamond Heels have come very, very close to the national championship — in 2006, they were tied in the eighth inning of the CWS title tilt before losing 3-2 to Oregon State — but they haven’t yet reached the top of the college baseball mountain.
Maybe this year.
UNC (54-13-1) and unseeded Oklahoma (42-23) will complete their best-of-three matchup in the CWS championship series on Monday (7 p.m., ESPN).
The Tar Heels are 4-1 in Omaha so far, beating West Virginia twice and Ole Miss once to claim their half of the eight-team bracket, then splitting their first two games against the hot-hitting Sooners.
(For this year’s regional and Super Regional results, please click HERE. For our NCAA Baseball Championship overview with ESPN play-by-play voice Daron Vaught, please click HERE.)
As the #5 national seed, the Tar Heels served as hosts over the previous two weeks. Carolina won all three of its games in the Chapel Hill Regional, including two against in-state rival East Carolina, then edged USC 2-1 in a thrilling best-of-three Super Regional at Boshamer Stadium.
In college baseball, top-eight seeds have won seven of the past eight NCAA titles.
This year, #1 UCLA, #2 Georgia Tech and #8 Florida were eliminated on their home fields during regional competition. Then #4 Auburn and #7 Alabama fell in the Super Regional round.
Oddsmakers now consider UNC the favorite for this year’s College World Series championship; one gives the Tar Heels a 65 percent chance of winning the national title. The other pre-tournament favorites, #6 Texas and #3 Georgia, were eliminated in Omaha.
Amazingly, over the past 80 seasons, UNC has had only four baseball managers: Walter Rabb (1947-77), Mike Roberts (1978-98), Mike Fox (1999-2020) and Scott Forbes (2021-present).
Rabb (1960, 1966), Roberts (1978, 1989) and Fox (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2018) each led the Tar Heels to the College World Series multiple times. Now Forbes has done so, too.
In his five-plus seasons as the Heels’ head coach, Forbes has helped the Heels to six straight NCAA Tournament bids, four Super Regionals and the 2024 and 2026 editions of the College World Series. He also was Carolina’s pitching coach for the majority of Fox’s tenure, including the program’s national runner-up finishes in 2006 and 2007.
“I’ve been in the dugout twice, in the national championship games, and been that close (holds two fingers close together),” Forbes said. “I know how difficult it is.”
For now, at least, Carolina’s 52 NCAA team titles have come from eight programs: women’s soccer (22), field hockey (11), men’s basketball (six), men’s lacrosse (five), women’s lacrosse (four), men’s soccer (two), women’s basketball (one) and women’s tennis (one).
Among the university’s 20 other varsity sports, baseball is the one that has been in the running for the national championship most frequently, with nine College World Series trips just over the past 20 events.
Interestingly, none of those recent CWS appearances for UNC was anything close to a Cinderella story. The Tar Heels were a top-eight seed (again, playing only home games in the postseason prior to the CWS) eight times, and they were a regional host all nine times.
Since the NCAA started specifying the event’s top eight seeds, in 1987, Carolina has been ranked one of the top five seeds nine times. In seven of those years, including under Forbes in 2024 and 2026, the Heels advanced to the College World Series. The other two times, including last year, they fell short of a trip to Omaha.
Over the past five months, UNC players’ short-term challenges have been simply to win the next at-bat, the next inning, the next game.
In the bigger picture, though, the 2026 Tar Heels also have the loftiest possible goal — the national championship, something they initially discussed about eight months ago, during fall practice.
“That’s become the standard here,” Forbes said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
College World Series Trips
(NC Division One Programs Only)
School, Conference — Trips (Most Recent)
North Carolina, ACC — 13 (2026)
NC State, ACC — 4 (2024)
Duke, ACC — 3 (1961)
Wake Forest, ACC — 3 (2023)
NCAA Championship Bids By School
(NC Division One Programs Only)
School, Conference — Trips (Most Recent)
North Carolina, ACC — 38 (2026)
East Carolina, American — 36 (2026)
NC State, ACC — 36 (2026)
Wake Forest, ACC — 18 (2026)
UNC Wilmington, CAA — 12 (2024)
Western Carolina, SoCon — 12 (2016)
Duke, ACC — 12 (2025)
Campbell, CAA — 7 (2023)
Charlotte, American — 7 (2023)
Elon, CAA — 6 (2013)
Appalachian State, Sun Belt — 4 (2012)
UNC Greensboro, SoCon — 4 (2022)
North Carolina A&T, CAA — 2 (2018)
Davidson, Atlantic-10 — 1 (2017)
High Point, Big South — 1 (2024)
UNC Asheville, Big South — 1 (2006)
Gardner-Webb, Big South (D1 since 1990) — 0
Queens, Atlantic Sun (D1 since 2023) — 0
NCAA Baseball Champions
(Last 10 Years)
Year — Winner, Conference (National Seed)
2025 — LSU, SEC (#6)
2024 — Tennessee, SEC (#1)
2023 — LSU, SEC (#5)
2022 — Mississippi, SEC (unseeded)
2021 — Mississippi State, SEC (#7)
2020 — COVID/no tournament
2019 — Vanderbilt, SEC (#2)
2018 — Oregon State, Pac-12 (#3)
2017 — Florida, SEC (#3)
2016 — Coastal Carolina, Big South (unseeded)
